While there are a variety of COVID-19 variants around the world, the Omicron form, which was discovered in South Africa in November of last year, is principally responsible for the current wave of infections.
Although the presence of Coronavirus can be confirmed using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test in a hospital or a rapid antigen (RA) test at home, only genomic sequencing in a laboratory can determine the virus’s exact lineage.
This is about to change, thanks to researchers at the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School (NJMS), who have created a COVID-19 testing kit that can identify the Coronavirus strain’s provenance in minutes.
Probes, which are radioactively tagged small DNA fragments used to detect specific strands of DNA, are utilized in the testing kit. Depending on the variety of Coronavirus they are linked to, these probes flash in different colors.
The new testing kit has been assessed in a small-scale clinical investigation, according to Dr. David Alland, Director of the NJMS Public Health Research Institute. It successfully detected all of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recognized Coronavirus variants of concern.
Dr. Alland stated that NJMS is now intending to file an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) request for the testing kit with the New Jersey Health Department in order to use it on a broad scale inside the state, and that the FDA’s EUA for the testing kit will be sought in the next phase.
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